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Wilson Center Experts

Richard Cincotta

Global Fellow

Environmental Change and Security Program

Affiliation:

Demographer in Residence, The Stimson Center

Term:

Sep 01, 2013

-

Sep 30, 2015

Richard Cincotta is a demographer whose research has focused on the demographic transition’s influences on political, institutional and environmental conditions. He is the demographer-in-residence at the Stimson Center, and (most notably) has served as Director of Social Science and Demographic Programs in the National Intelligence Council’s Long Range Analysis Unit (2006-09) and as an AAAS Fellow in USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health (1992-1994). His publications on demographic topics have appeared in Foreign Policy, Current History, Nature and Science, and he has contributed to the National Intelligence Council's two most recent global futuring exercises, Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds (2012), and Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World (2008). Dr. Cincotta is the current chair of the International Studies Association’s Political Demography and Geography Section. He trained as a population biologist, and is a graduate of Syracuse University/SUNY College of ESF (BS) and Colorado State University (MS, PhD).

Previous Terms at the Wilson Center:

Aug 2011

Related Content for this Expert

Speakers from the Sahel and US-based experts will engage in solutions-oriented policy dialogues that address demographic trends, reproductive health, food security, and peacebuilding. Additional cross-cutting themes throughout the discussion will include gender, youth, and health. more

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“Sexual violence plays a special role as a form of violence and as a form of terror and torture,” said Alison Brysk, a Wilson Center fellow and Mellichamp chair of global governance at the University of California Santa Barbara. Yet the connections between gender-based violence and urbanization – observed in Kenya, India, and countries around the world – are not widely recognized. more

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As the United States approaches its 2014 deadline for military withdrawal from Afghanistan, one often overshadowed aspect of the conflict is the hard-won progress made by previously marginalized segments of the Afghan population, particularly women, girls, and young people. Afghanistan has one of the highest proportions of young people in the world – many of whom have known only war. The median age of the population is 15.6 years old, the median age of marriage is 18, and half of mothers surveyed during a country-wide mortality survey had their first child when they were teenagers. more

The newest quadrennial report from the National Intelligence Council identifies the “game-changers, megatrends, and black swans” that may determine the trajectory of world affairs over the next 15 years, including population dynamics and natural resource scarcity. more

“We are in the midst of a silent revolution,” said Ann Pawliczko, a senior technical advisor in the population and development branch at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), quoting former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. “It is a revolution that extends well beyond demographics, with major economic, social, cultural, psychological, and spiritual implications.” more

Ten years ago, demography was hardly on the radar screen of policymakers. Today, it’s a part of almost every discussion of America’s long-term fiscal, economic, or foreign policy direction. With the world’s population hitting 7 billion last year, and headed for 10 billion in the next century, it is crucial to assess the impact of global population trends on international security and national politics. Top demographic security experts discuss this important trend at a half day workshop at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. more

Measurements of "human population density and growth can be used to identify changes in the viability of native species, and more directly, in changes in ecological systems or habitat quality," said Richard Cincotta, consultant at the Environmental Change and Security Program and demographer-in-residence at the Stimson Center, speaking at the book launch of Human Population: Its Influence on Biological Diversity. more

Pages

Speakers from the Sahel and US-based experts will engage in solutions-oriented policy dialogues that address demographic trends, reproductive health, food security, and peacebuilding. Additional cross-cutting themes throughout the discussion will include gender, youth, and health.

Dr. Murray Feshbach was one of the first scholars to point out the devastating political and socio-economic effects of state communism’s failure to seriously address decaying public health and environmental conditions. His pioneering work remains relevant. More than two decades after the close of the Cold War, many health and demographic indicators in the former Warsaw-Pact states (including Russia) remain surprisingly inferior to those of the neighboring states of Western and Southern Europe.

“Sexual violence plays a special role as a form of violence and as a form of terror and torture,” said Alison Brysk, a Wilson Center fellow and Mellichamp chair of global governance at the University of California Santa Barbara. Yet the connections between gender-based violence and urbanization – observed in Kenya, India, and countries around the world – are not widely recognized.

The future of global development is dependent on connecting people with diverse expertise and making futures analysis at the policy level implementable on the ground, concluded a panel of experts speaking at the Atlantic Council on December 17 for a public event on “Building the Future of Global Development.”

As the United States approaches its 2014 deadline for military withdrawal from Afghanistan, one often overshadowed aspect of the conflict is the hard-won progress made by previously marginalized segments of the Afghan population, particularly women, girls, and young people. Afghanistan has one of the highest proportions of young people in the world – many of whom have known only war. The median age of the population is 15.6 years old, the median age of marriage is 18, and half of mothers surveyed during a country-wide mortality survey had their first child when they were teenagers.

The newest quadrennial report from the National Intelligence Council identifies the “game-changers, megatrends, and black swans” that may determine the trajectory of world affairs over the next 15 years, including population dynamics and natural resource scarcity.

“We are in the midst of a silent revolution,” said Ann Pawliczko, a senior technical advisor in the population and development branch at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), quoting former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. “It is a revolution that extends well beyond demographics, with major economic, social, cultural, psychological, and spiritual implications.”

Ten years ago, demography was hardly on the radar screen of policymakers. Today, it’s a part of almost every discussion of America’s long-term fiscal, economic, or foreign policy direction. With the world’s population hitting 7 billion last year, and headed for 10 billion in the next century, it is crucial to assess the impact of global population trends on international security and national politics. Top demographic security experts discuss this important trend at a half day workshop at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

Measurements of "human population density and growth can be used to identify changes in the viability of native species, and more directly, in changes in ecological systems or habitat quality," said Richard Cincotta, consultant at the Environmental Change and Security Program and demographer-in-residence at the Stimson Center, speaking at the book launch of Human Population: Its Influence on Biological Diversity.

The series seeks to broaden understanding of health and population issues as part of the problem and part of the solution to instability challenges, as well as foster debate about the correlations between fragility and population dynamics.